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    • Autumn 2 Bright Lights, Big City

    Curriculum overview

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    Week Commencing 3rd November 2025

    This week, we started our new topic called ‘Bright Lights, Big City.’ We learnt all about King Charles and his family. We made London landmarks, working teams to create these. In English, we read a book called ‘Katie in London.’ We thought about what she did during her day and had a go at writing recounts in chronological order. We then had a go at writing our own recounts based on our day at school. In maths, we learnt more about addition and subtraction. We explored subtracting by drawing circles and crossing out the ones we don't need. In geography, we learnt about physical features. We worked on naming and describing them. We also thought about what a city was and how it is different to a town and a village. In history, we learnt about Guy Fawkes and the houses of parliament. We then thought about firework safety and made our own firework inspired artwork.

     

    Week Commencing 10th November 2025 

    This week, we read two books by Nicholas Allen. We read ‘The Queen’s Knickers’ and ‘The King’s Pants’. We had fun thinking of lots of different adjectives and then designing and describing our own designs. We also had a go at writing letters to the King to tell him some different plans to get his pants back. In maths, we started to learn about subtracting. We learnt how to cross things out to subtract them, how to use real objects and also how to count back. We also learnt that you always subtract from the whole. For example, if 6 is the whole, 2 is a part and 4 is a part, we could do 6 – 2 = 4 and 6 – 4 = 2. We then explored fact families e.g. if 6-2=4 and 6-4=2 then we also know that 4+2=6 and 2+4=6. In geography, we kept a weather diary for the week and looked to see what the seasonal weather was like. We learnt about physical and human features that we can find at Balliol. We learnt about the city of London. We also learnt all about the countries and capital cities that make up the UK. 

    Week Commencing 17th November 2025

    This week, we read a book called ‘Fortunately, Unfortunately’. We thought of our own fortunately, unfortunately sentences. In maths, we have been learning about 2D and 3D shapes.  In geography, we learnt about London landmarks. We learnt about some of the famous ones and what makes them special. In art, we learnt about famous artist Stephen Wiltshire. We then had a go at using sketching pencils to draw some London landmarks. In history, we learnt about famous people from Bedfordshire such as Paula Radcliffe, John Bunyan, John Howard, William Harpur etc.

    Week Commencing 24th November 2025

    This week, we read a book called ‘Handa’s Surprise.’ We had a go at acting out the story and then we thought about what aspects we could change in order to make it into a new story. For example rather than Handa putting fruit into a basket and the animals taking them, we could put toys into a box or food. In maths, we learnt all about 2D and 3D shapes. We learnt about their names and properties. We also explore repeating patterns. In geography, we learnt about aerial photos and how to identify human and physical features. We also explored maps and how to give directions. We then learnt about Kuala Lumpur and compared it with London to see what was similar and what was different. In DT, we worked on our cutting skills and made a class advent calendar.

    Week Commencing 1st December 2025

    This week, we read books by Steve Antony called ‘The Queen’s Hat’ and ‘The Queen’s Handbag’. We had a go writing a pretend diary entry for the queen based on events in the book. We also compared the books to see what was similar and what was different. We then wrote our own diary entries. In maths, we started our consolidation weeks. We reviewed related number facts, place value of numbers to 99 using tens and ones and also ordering numbers from least to greatest value.  In geography, we explored the four seasons and the typical seasonal weather associated with each season. We also explored the purpose of different landmarks and then worked on our navigation and map skills to direct people from underground stations to a landmark.

    Week Commencing 8th December 2025

    We looked at poetry. We read poems from all different countries and had a go at changing them and writing our own version. In maths, we continued our consolidation, working on all the skills we have been looking at this term. In geography, we looked at the United Kingdom and found the capital cities of the different countries. In science, we looked at  the weather and seasonal changes.